The Playground (Book #1)

eleven

I'm not quite sure how long we stood there, foreheads together. it might have been a few seconds, a few minutes. I can't say for sure. Whatever the case, it was long enough for me to completely forget about the world. Long enough for me to forget that Oliver may be dying, and that my siblings are starving at home and that I may not make it out alive and that my mother is okay with that. 

He leans in, just by an inch, but I am the one to pull away. I am the one that opens my eyes first, the one that moves to the opposite side of the kitchen and clamps down hard on the sink. He is the one that blinks and mumbles something about checking on Raveena and Opal. He is the one that disappears into the other room while I stare up at the ceiling and let a salty tear run down my cheek. I don't need to look in the mirror to know that my cheeks are burning red. No. I tell myself. Absolutely not! Not at a time like this. Not with a boy like him. How reckless, how idiotic, how human of me. What am I thinking? What am I doing? I walk back to the living room and see Oliver lying there. I wonder if he's dreaming. Wonder if he knows I'm standing here watching him. I wonder if he knows if Ruby is here, watching him too.

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In the morning, I awake and see a soft blue sky. White birds fly overhead, singing a light and airy tune. I'm set in a trance by their song, a melody sweet like honey. I try to stand up, but I then I realize I'm floating in the water. I jolt up and begin splashing around in panic. "Laelia!" I hear Basil say. "Laelia!" "Basil!" I yell. "Basil where are you? I can't see you. I can't see anyone!" "Calm down, calm down. You're outside the safehouse. The rest of the team is in here." "What?" I say in shock. "Did I sleepwalk out or something? How did this happen?" "Laelia, we're in position for our next game." "What?" Then I hear the computer voice. "Welcome, testers. Today's game is Marco Polo. This game involves keen listening skills. Each team has one Marco and one Polo which was randomly assigned by The Enchantment. It is Marco's job to locate the Polo. You will be competing against multiple teams in this game. Whoever finds their Polo first will win the game. The rest of the teammates will stay in their Safehouse, guiding the Marco and leading them as they go. The game begins in two minutes." I look over and finally see others from opposing teams, bobbing in the water coming into view. I try to lurch forward and see further down, but my ring is pulled back by some unseen force and I can't move. "Basil!" I say. "Who is the Marco and who is the Polo?" "You're the Marco, Laelia. And Oliver is the polo." My heart starts. "What? No! No!" I begin to panic again. "Is he conscious now? Is he okay?" "Yes, he appears to be conscious," Opal says. "Don't worry. But you need to act fast. He's chained down, so he can't move an inch. You have to reach him before there is too much exposure damage. His suit has regenerated its lives because it's a new game, but his body has taken a toll since last night." I want to scream. "Oh god," I say. "Breath, Laelia," Basil says. "You overreacting will only make it worse." "How do I reach him fast enough? What if--?" "Stop panicking Laelia. Oliver is fine." Raveena says. "Just don't lollygag. We can't afford another loss. Understand?" "Yes," I say. "Ten, nine, eight, seven.." I can't bear to listen to the countdown anymore. I tune it out. When it finally finishes, and I feel my ring release, I swim, harder than I've ever swum before. The shore is about 20 feet from us. I try not to think about how tired I will be by the end of it. I feel the muscles in my body heat up furiously, the thought of Oliver's dehydrated, scared, and anxious face pushing me to the sandy beach which is lined with each of our packs. Testers of other teams start running ahead of me. I pick up mine and grab my electric rod from inside of it then and I swing it over my shoulders. 

 I hear his scream loudly in my ear.

 "Laelia!" It's the most fearful cry I've ever heard. It sounds far, away but there is no question that it is him. "Guys..." I say into the comm. "He's...fine Laelia," Basil says unconvincingly. "Just follow his voice." I begin sprinting towards it while looking down at the map on my screen. My estimated time of arrival to Oliver is around thirty minutes but it seems like I have to pass a whirlwind of obstacles to get to him. First landscape up is the SandBox, a treacherous territory of The Playground which I learned of in my 6th year of study. I'm running through a small stuffed bear forest, alongside the others. I spot a girl next to me, small eyes with short, dark, spiky hair. She's thin and limping as she runs. On my other side is a boy, he looks at me with wild eyes, the kind you try to avoid. He's buff, tall, and muscular, and has flaming red hair. "I'm finding em first!" He yells over at me. "Not if I can help it." A girl up front says. She's olive skinned with pin straight black hair begins shooting backward. We all duck. "What the hell was that?" I yell both at my screen at her. "Laelia, shoot back!" Opal says. "You're allowed to in this game remember?" I take out my rod and blast it forwards. Redhead and Spikes take out there weapons too and begin to fire. Blaster girl dodges them, and I can already tell just by the gracefulness in which he runs that she is not like me. Her parents had money. Her house had running water. Her personal trainer taught her to run like that. Taught her to shoot and shoot first. Eventually, she outruns us and our blasts don't reach her. "Bastard!" Spikes yells angrily. I look over at her. "Why the limp?" I ask out of breath. "Why do you care?" She says. I immediately turn away and look instead at the trees. Stuffed bears with loose stitching and legs that are loosely attached watch me through their beady button eyes. They lay lazily on the branches, perfectly still and perfectly silent. I'm so entranced in the bears that I don't realize that the Sandbox is just ahead of me and when I take my next step, I begin tumbling, down a large sand dune and land hard on my back once I reach the bottom. ground hard at the bottom. I clench my teeth to avoid screaming out in pain. I look up and I can see Blaster girl and other running ahead of me. I slowly get up, surveying the area and wincing through my pain. The Sandbox is filled with dunes and playground rides as large as tall buildings decorate their orange peaks. They look broken and battered as if some giant tossed them haphazardly and abandoned them. I get up and begin running again, wanting so badly not lose. "Laelia" It's Oliver's voice again. But it is no longer screaming in agony, it's a soft and silky whisper full of mischief and slyness. It sounds nothing like Oliver, the kind, broken boy. It sounds like a complete phony. Stop it. I tell him in my head.  My body sweaty and my back painful, I do my best to keep on going through the unbearable heat.  "Straight ahead, for now, Laelia," Raveena says through the comm. "He's coming up north of you." I picture them watching me through the Safehouse, all crowded around the screen. I wonder if they think I'll find him in time. I think of Opals face, studious and careful, picking up every single detail. I think of Raveena's judgemental and menacing glare, waiting for me to crash over another dune.  Most of all I think of Basil's eyes. Gray yet warm as the sun, watching me, hoping for my return. Then I shake the thought of my head, even let out a small laugh as I think of how foolish it is to believe such things. I then picture the look on Oliver's face once I release him from his chains and we take the package back home. "Coming up on your right Laelia," Basil says. "His voice is coming towards your right. I begin to steer towards my right, and running past the person in front of me. "Is he close?" I say anxious. "Patience," Opal says. "You're just about half a mile from being out of this landscape. There should be a stream leading to a fjord up ahead. I suggest stopping there for water.  "Okay, because---" I don't get to finish my thought before I'm slowly being drawn up out of the sky. I scream. I'm on top of some slippery, scaly surface. The head of a snake. Almost like a synchronized dance, other snakeheads and bodies appear out fo the dunes and I can see in distance Blaster Girl getting eaten by one of them. I scream in terror. Others join me. All at once I hear my teammates voices in my head. "Breath, breath!" Basil says. "Laelia electrify it!" Opal says. "Get down from that thing now!" Raveena says. I follow Opals advice and press my rod into its skull letting out bolts of electricity and jump off of it. It's starts contorting on the sandy ground. I begin sprinting, not even feeling the pain from my back anymore. But It's harder to run in the slippery sand, and the sun doesn't help the cause one bit. "Laelia behind you!" I turn and see the large snake slithering full speed in my direction. Someone at my right is trying to sting it in the eyes with knives. There are a few people on top of it. I move out of its path and begin to keep running. "How the hell do I lose these things?" I yell into the screen. "From what the game tells us, they can't leave past the boundaries of The SandBox and the nearest exit out is the oasis on your right." I look over and see that a tropical green oasis is coming to light but this hazy and foggy and not very clear. "I'll be dead before I get there!" I say in agony. "C'mon Laelia! You've got it." Opal says. The snake shakes off one of the testers violently and he spins away and plummets into the sand.  I slowly begin to turn into the direction of the oasis which several of my other teammates have also figured out is the means of escape. But unfortunately, so has one of the snakes and their coming right for us. "How much farther?" I say my voice dry. I take out my rod and snap electricity but it dodges it. "Not long" Basil says. "Hang in there." The others join me in trying to blast it away but the snake is remains unphased. It hisses at us with every throw we make at it and lunges into the sand. I can feel the ground shaking as it slithers beneath and prays to god that its head won't pop out and bite me with its fangs. But I just keep running, and running, and I crash and fall into the oasis. The atmosphere completely changes too cool and wet. The snake looks at us for a moment before slithering away. The others scramble up to their feet and I do too, my weapon ready to shoot at whatever giant animal dominates this landscape.  We stand silent, waiting, our hearts pounding and looking up towards the trees. I can hear insects chirping, sitting camouflaged between the leaves of the trees. "Is anything here?" I whisper into my screen. A couple gives anxious glances at me as they ask their own team through their screens. "Nothing is showing up on the sensor." Opal says. "But, be quiet." I swallow. Slowly, the group of us walk down the messy leaved trail. An orange butterfly flaps its wings past my eyes. I follow it as it lands quietly on my mother's finger.